Bean Burgers - RGB

this week's musical accompaniment (to the cooking): Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career

So I reckon this counts as the first full post of the blog; cooking and music. This week's culinary treat was bean burgers with homemade chips:
As you can kind of see there, the burgers didn't quite hold together. They tasted pretty good, but I think they were missing something (dunno what that something is, though...). The chips though were gorgeous! Far better than I was expecting, given they actually tasted like chips, unlike my Mum's chips which just taste like roast potatoes. Not that there's anything wrong with roast potatoes, they're just not what I think of as chips...

No cake this week, unfortunately, as I had a cold come on on Sunday, and sneezed in the cake mixture, so I didn't want to pass it on to Craig. It wasn't a particularly exciting cake anyway - the recipe sounded kind of interesting, but it just came out like a Christmas cake without the icing. It's not a bad cake, but I can't imagine anyone getting excited by it.


Musically, this week we started on a new song, tentatively called RGB. The way we seem to work is to come up with a basic sketch one week, and then fashion it into something more coherent the next week. So this is the raw ingredients...

Download RGB.

It's very fuzzy (too fuzzy, imo) and it's a bit clunky, but I can see where it's going. I'm going to try and add some percussion over the weekend in preparation for next week's meet up. Given the name, I also want to make it neon-sounding, though I still have no idea how to make something sound like an abstract visual quality (my PhD was clearly in vain...).

All mp3s are released under the Creative Commons Sampling Plus License, btw.

Now, I'm going to try and hide the recipes behind this cut (I wish blogger gave you a button to do this automatically):

More...
Bean Burgers
(adapted (slightly) from The Vegetarian Bible cookbook)

• 1/2 tbsp Sunflower oil, plus extra for brushing
• 1 Small Onion, finely chopped
• 1 Small Garlic Clove, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp Ground Coriander
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cumin
• 58g Button Mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1/2 425g Tin Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
• 1 tbsp Fresh Flat-Leaf Parsley, chopped
• Plain Flour for dusting
• 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan on a medium heat.
2. Add the onion and cook for 5 mins, or until softened.
3. Add the garlic, coriander and cumin, and cook for 1 min.
4. Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 mins until all the liquid has evaporated(?).
5. Put the beans in a small bowl and mash them.
6. Mix the beans with the mushroom mixture and the parsley and cayenne in a bowl.
7. Shape into 2 patties.
8. Brush with oil, and cook under a preheated (medium-high) grill for 4-5 mins on each side.

Chips

• 3 Potatoes
• Celery Salt
• Sunflower Oil

1. Heat the oil on a baking tray in the oven (200C).
2. Chop the potatoes into thin-ish strips.
3. Add the potatoes to the tray, cook for ~45 mins, turning occasionally.
4. Season to taste.